Before he stepped into the ring earlier this month in his UFC debut, Torrez Finney pointed out that he was glad to be able to zero in on winning.
Finney has now done that, following a split-decision victory against Robert Valentin for the former JCHS two-sport standout.
“Getting a win in UFC in itself is a hard thing to do. A lot of UFC guys will tell you that you’re not really a UFC guy until you get your first UFC win; you hear that a lot,” Finney said. “You make the walk and go through the whole thing, but you still want to get that win, you want to be part of the action. It’s an honor and blessing to that win.”
Finney appeared to have the upper hand throughout all three of the bout’s rounds, but that apparently was not reflected in the decision of the fight’s judges. Finney had a 47 percent takedown percentage and 13:16 control time, limiting Valentin from gaining much leverage as a majority of the fight was contested near the edge of the ring along the cage.
“The first round went great; the second round was more of a challenge,” Finney said. “I’ll give credit to Valentin for what he did. Part of it was what he did, and part of it was what I didn’t do. The goal was always to have him in center of the ring, and I never did. I kept taking him toward cage.”
Valentin, on the other hand, managed 16 seconds of control time and registered zero takedowns.
“I didn’t like it being a spit decision. Part of that was my performance. I should have done a bit better in some areas. Part of that was me handcuffing myself. I went back and rewatched it, and the fight was not anywhere near a split decision,” Finney said.
I pretty much dominated the first and second rounds. It just happened that I had a boxing judge judge one of my fights. To score that fight 30-27, that’s a little bit absurd.
Split decision or not, Finney is still unbeaten at 11-0 and more importantly, 1-0 in the UFC. Taking his talents to the latter puts him under a bigger microscope than the Dana White Contender Series. And as is the case in the modern social media landscape, self-proclaimed expert upon expert had their personal criticisms of Finney and his fighting style during and after the fight.
None of that, however, is on Finney’s mind.
“To me, it’s honestly hilarious. That doesn’t get to me. For one, I treat my career similar to how used to it used to be in high school with Northside and HOCO and all the trash talk that was going on,” Finney said. “I know the type of competitor I am. It’s all fun; it’s all banter and trolls. They’d never say any of that to anybody’s face.”
With the win now under his belt, the next step is multi-pronged for Finney. In addition to working on improving and healing up from minor injuries from the fight camp before his bout, Finney’s eyes are on his next fight.
Finney would have zero qualms with being on the card for the June UFC event at State Farm Arena in Atlanta but concedes that may be a tight turnaround.
“If there’s a way to get on that, it’d be awesome,” Finney said. “If not, hopefully it’ll be sometime in July.
